Your question is something we can only speak to, from our personal points of view.
Personally, Spirituality for ME... is separate from religion. Spirituality, in my POV, is our abilities, our individuality; to communicate with the Source of all the Universes. I don't know if it's God, or if that Source for ALL of what others think or feel God is, really IS...
When the God of Moses said, "There shalt be no other God before Thee..." was that voice he heard an individual God? Or was it the God of Abraham? If it was the God of Abraham, he is not MY God, because I'm NOT Jewish. The New Testament seems to indicate that there is only ONE God. But what if the God each one of us answers to, providing we believe it, is an Under God...! What if all different sects of people are from a different God, (Who has a Great Overseer) and demands that each of our cultures answer to our own particular God? Perhaps the many species of humans all have a different Under Lord, who is the one we need to please... Especially if we're from different cultures, seeded or colonized here for specific reasons?
When I meditate, I ask for the SOURCE of all the Universes to hear what I say and what I ask. I guess I'm trying to cover ALL my bases, because one of my very best friends - a Jew - says that all Gentiles are put here to serve the Jewish People. Well, I don't find that my own reality. I respect ALL religions, even the ones I don't agree with... Perhaps all our different cultures and religions have different Over Lords who ultimately answer to separate Gods, who also have to answer to the Source?
I've always felt I have a direct line to whatever/whomever is responsible for my culture. So.. I don't answer to the God of Abraham. I answer to the SOURCE - the energy that's responsible for ALL of us, regardless of our different religions.
This is why I don't think we, As Americans, need to protect Israel. Yes, they are humans, just like us. And they seem to have become has barbaric as the Hitler Regime that chose to try to eradicate them. The holocaust was a terrible "solution" and should never have happened. But the God of the Palistinians may have a different Under Lord who which leads them in a different direction. And their GOD hasn't come around to modern acceptability of the others. They need to ask their own Gods to realize that we're not living in pre-Christian times.
RELIGION really IS different from Spirituality. So in my honest opinion, ALL RELIGIONS, regardless of what they worship, are translating and interpreting their particular religions, based on what their politicians and religious leaders interpreted THEIR particular mantras to be. They NEVER agree, because of the interpretations and politics of their days - were thousands of years ago. They need to come up to speed...
NONE of our religious theology has grown much, throughout the Ages. Each tends to keep as much of the OLD TENANTS as they can, and not all of them are viable in this day and age. They ALL need to bring their beliefs up-to-date, and incorporate EQUALITY for all - women, LGBTI, and everyone else we find different from our old world beliefs. We need to take the best and the fairest of all the mantras, and bring them into the 21st Century. This includes Family Planning, allowing women and men to be "normal" and "Equal" according to the standards of today.
I know I'm hoping for too much... Our lifetimes may not be long enough to incorporate fairness and equality, at this point in time! But remember - we are all Children of the Earth. If we're ever going to put aside our differences and stop fighting over religious differences, we also have to be willing to GROW. The hard-line religious people of all sects need to expand their realities into the 21st Century.
We're not doing that.
And that's sad.
We have to learn to live in PEACE with each other, and respect the differences our specific God(s) ask from us - not the politicians who are using religions to separate our values and our abilities to accept ALL of us, and work together for PEACE - We can't trust warring over our political-based theocratical differences. We are all more alike than we are different.Can't we just look at that... and move on from there?!
_________________ Some days are DIAMONDS; some days are STONES!
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